In a small strip mall in an East Bay suburb sits an innocuous space, The Lafayette Dance Academy. It has all the usual accoutrements of most studios: practice barre, mirrored walls and a wooden floor. Friday evenings you won’t find any ballerinas to tap dancers looming about, but what you will find is a distinctive sizzle.

This is the night students of all ages gather, some with stiletto heels in hand, ready to tango, Argentinean style. Tango, often referred to as the dance of possibility, is a perfect dance for Valentine's Day. Just as love is a possiblity, the tango, performed closely and intently, allows dancers to lead, follow, submit and improvise movements to stay in the moment.

Instructors Marcelo Solis, 38, and Romina Hahn, 27, lead a beginning class that starts at 8 p.m., followed by another at 9 p.m., where the more seasoned, intermediate students dance. After class everyone, dancers and teachers alike, gather for snacks, talk and more dancing if they are so inclined.
Solis and Hahn have been dancing all their lives and met several years ago at a milonga, or tango party. Since then they have been partners both professionally and personally.

The dark-haired, petite Hahn, who bears a striking resemblance to actress Selma Hayek, said before learning to tango she did non-partner dancing---mostly jazz and Afro-Cuban.

“But once I tried tango, I was hooked,” she said.

The slender, pony-tailed Solis said his aunt introduced him to music and dance. “She and my uncle love dancing and they would do the Cumbia (a Colombian dance similar to salsa),” he added. “Ask her and she will tell you she was my first tango partner.”

Solis’ love of tango led him to teach others, like Jim Maguire, 80. Maguire said he and his late wife, loved dancing. Living in South America inspired a love of the culture and people, he added.

“I had never learned tango, but it just seemed like the natural thing to do,” Maguire said.

Maguire has been taking lessons for the past four months and has nothing but kudos for his teachers.

“They are the most extraordinary teachers,” he said. “They are the most kind, gracious and patient people. (The tango) is very disciplined. It requires as much concentration and discipline as learning a language.”

Solis and Hahn use that discipline in a series of steps that each student practices. As they go through their paces, Solis tells everyone to get a partner, and what had only moments before been a series of counted-off foot shifting morphs into a fluid and seamless movement.

The music of this tango is slow and provocative, with poetic Spanish lyrics. Violins play along with the bandoneón, an instrument that sounds a bit like an accordion.

Partners gaze into each other’s eyes from inches apart, concentrating and carefully executing the steps in an almost effortless way, drawn together until they appear as one.

Jeff Heaton, 51, has been dancing for over 7 years and also teaches these days. He explains that in the tango, a certain level of awareness must be maintained because of the close body contact required to tango.

“I started dancing the tango because of the intimacy,” he said. “In other forms of ballroom dance, partners look away from each other; they lead and follow apart.”

Heaton added that true Argentinean tango is completely improvised. “Each movement is your interpretation of the music at the moment,” he said.

Heath said he enjoys such improvisation, and the opportunity to lead a partner in such a creative style of dance.

“You interpret the music and make sure your partner is there,” he said. “If she’s not, you just wait for her until you are both there at the same time.”

Hanna Chung, 27, who has been dancing with Solis for about two years and holds a degree in Latin American literature, said she became mesmerized by the tango’s footwork when a friend took her to a lesson.

“I had this weird image of tango and thought it was this rose in the mouth, too close to your partner dance,” she said. “But when my friend talked me into going to her mother’s tango lesson, everything about it captured my attention.

“The passion and connection with a partner; you can dance with a stranger and still have a strong connection. (The tango is) captivating and mesmerizing.”

When architect Elena Branick, 64, speaks about tango, it sounds nearly spiritual.

“Tango is joy-making,” Branick said. “It is my passion because for body movement, as a woman, I have to be a follower.” Branick, who said she has always been independent, said the dance has allowed her to let go and follow someone else’s lead.

“Life gave me a leader and in tango you follow, trust, don’t worry. It’s a rediscovery for somebody who’s not used to following.”

Like many students interviewed, she said that Solis and Hahn are extraordinary, patient teachers.

“They have a charisma,” she said. “Other instructors are too school-like, saying, ‘Do this and stand this way,’ but that’s the talent of their teaching. They know you will learn through patient repetition.”

According to Hahn, the Bay Area is home to the largest tango following in the United States. “I feel free expressing my feeling when dancing,” Hahn said. “Tango is the dance of possibility. Marcelo is the most delicate leader. He’s clear, smooth and subtle---he’s the best.”

Solis said he had tried many forms of dance, yoga, and exercise, but prefers tango to them all.

“Since beginning tango, I have been able to put together the elements of both soul and body and put them all together,” Solis said. “Tango is meditation, but not alone. With your partner, it works like a mirror for you.”

Sharing the dance floor is like a social meditation where a person can express themselves freely, he added. Solis said that Hahn is the perfect partner for him because they match physically in size. “With other partners I was limited by this aspect, but with Romina I have now been able to explore new aspects of dance.”

Besides teaching tango, Solis and Hahn also perform tango exhibitions. During February and March, the couple will be part of the arts education program, People Like Me 2005: It’s All Relative.

“It’s an ethnic dance festival for children, and we will do a humorous tango piece, which we are working on currently,” Hahn said.

The couple will also escort a tour of students to Buenos Aires, Argentina at the end of March. Participants attend tango classes with local teachers, dance at local milongas, and tour different parts of the city and countryside.

In addition to the Lafayette class, Solis and Hahn also offer classes at various other Bay Area locations, including Café Mama and Studio 204, both in San Francisco.

So if you are looking for something new, soulful, meditative and sensual, or a way to get closer to your partner this Valentine’s Day, tango lessons may be a step in the right direction.

For more information on tango lessons with Solis and Hahn, visit their website at http://www.marceloromina.com.